Computer-implemented method for planning and/or controlling a production by a production system, and production planning and/or control system

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for planning and/or controlling a production by a production system comprising a plurality of production sections and production lines. A production planning and/or control system are also disclosed.

1 . A computer-implemented method for planning a production and/or controlling a production by a production system comprising a plurality of production sections and production lines, the method comprising:
 obtaining data comprising material requirements of the production sections;   organizing the material requirements in the production sections according to their impact on an optimization of a cost function of the production system;   selecting one of the material requirements that is compliant, projecting the selected material requirement onto materials in preceding production sections which are required for the production in the production section of the selected material requirement, and adjusting at least one requirement quantity and/or one requirement deadline of the respective materials; and   open-loop and/or closed-loop controlling the production lines depending on at least the adjusted requirement quantity and/or the requirement deadline and performing a first check to determine whether the adjusted requirement quantity of the respective materials is sufficient for the selected material requirement, wherein if the first check is positive the respective materials are reserved for the production system, and/or the selected material requirement is implemented, and a further material requirement that is compliant is selected.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 simulating the production system, the production planning and/or the production control in a simulation;   open-loop and/or closed-loop controlling the production lines depending on at least the adjusted requirement quantity and/or the requirement deadline;   selecting the material requirements that are compliant; and   performing a first check to determine whether the adjusted requirement quantity of the respective materials is sufficient for the respectively selected material requirement, wherein if the first check is positive the respective materials are reserved for the production system, and/or the selected material requirement is implemented, and a further material requirement that is compliant is selected.   
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the data comprise production parameters, optimality criteria and/or constraints, wherein the production parameters comprise worker situation, machine capabilities, material availabilities, material buffers and/or supplier capacities, the optimality criteria comprise maximum utilization of the machines and/or workers, minimization of delays, lowest stock levels and/or minimization of material flows and the constraints comprise priorities of material requirements, maximum warehouse and/or material buffer sizes, transport conditions, planning horizon, and/or supplier capacities. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 simulating a shift operation of workers;   assigning workers to the production lines; and   carrying out any change in the assignment of workers to the production lines at least depending on the material requirements and/or material stocks.   
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein if the first check is negative
 performing a second check in response to the first check being negative, wherein the second check comprises checking whether materials lacking for the material requirements can be delivered in compliance with the requirement deadline; and   ordering a delivery and reserving the delivered materials in response to the second check being positive, and reserving a further material requirement that is compliant in response to the second check being negative.   
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 ranking the material requirements in the production sections in such a way that slack times of the production system are optimized.   
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 ranking the material requirements in the production sections in such a way that, when a workflow plan of the production system is optimized, a fulfilment of the material requirements is combined with a maximization of production capacity utilization.   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 taking into account the production duration for the material requirements when adjusting the requirement deadline and/or selecting the material requirement depending on the respective line capacity on the production lines.   
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the production system comprises material buffers between the production sections, wherein the method further comprises reducing and the material requirements depending on the material buffers. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , comprising:
 generating a data structure from the material requirements obtained, which comprises at least material type, requirement quantity and requirement deadline for each production section, wherein the data structure comprises an index structure by which entries in the data structure are referenced among one another, wherein the production lines are assigned, workers are distributed, and/or supplier orders generated based on the data structure.   
     
     
         11 . The method
 providing open-loop and/or closed-loop control-related outputs and/or informational outputs, wherein the open-loop and/or closed-loop control-related outputs comprise production sequences, worker assignment and/or supplier orders and the informational outputs comprise material requirements coverage, completion dates, capacity utilization, bottlenecks, critical paths, and/or temporal progression of the production system.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1 , comprising:
 providing a production sequence.   
     
     
         13 . A production planning and/or control system comprising a processing unit configured to carry out the method according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         14 . The system according to  claim 13 , comprising a cloud infrastructure, the cloud infrastructure comprising a cloud-based storage, wherein a simulation of the production system, the production planning and/or production control takes place in the cloud infrastructure. 
     
     
         15 . The system according to  claim 13 , comprising at least one display device which displays configured to display open-loop and/or closed-loop control-related outputs and/or informational outputs from the system.